Black Leopard, Red Wolf

[rich]

all

200+ pgs in to Marlon James' new novel. If you've read Seven Killings
you'll be familiar with the highly sex'd (mostly homoerotic variety) and
brutally violent narratives Mr. James depicts (slavers, shape shifters,
cannibals, witches, demons, you name it). Here, quite an interesting take
on the fantasy genre (the African game of thrones misses the mark I
think--James thankfully is a much better writer than whats his name),
phantasmagorical actually in the way the Zone is. I sense Mr James has
read  Delaney, Blood Meridian (so far a brief appearance of a Judge like
character, big evil white dude who likes murdering children (though so do
many other characters), Ben Okri, a bunch of folklore I'm sure, and much
more.
the structure is much like the manuscript found at saragossa--stories
within stories, beginning with the main character's (Red Wolf)
interrogation. There is a key to characters and a map though the narrative
is hard to follow due to the shifting narratives--one is easily lost which
may be the point.
It's one long fever dream, well-worth getting lost in. Atrocities abound
yes, but it does not fall into the trap of flighty weightless doings or  a
disguised political science treatise on this guy vs this guy against
another guy. there are no heroes, it is a Boschian landscape filled with
terrors and mystery. what more could one want

rich